Now that small fireworks are legal here (ugh), we were concerned that all our neighbors would be setting off bunches of them at midnight, along with the big noisy illegal fireworks everyone here drives over to New Mexico to buy. To cover the sound of fireworks, we put on action movies with the volume up a bit higher than normal. With luck, this keeps the dogs from noticing the big booms outside.
Surprisingly, there were not as many set off as we expected. I wonder if this had anything to do with the really cold temperatures. By 8 pm, it was already in the low twenties! If that was the case, there's a good chance people have leftover fireworks they will be setting off tonight.
I felt ambitious when I woke up this morning so I baked some bread from scratch for the first time in ages. While waiting for the bread to bake, we noticed quite a few birds landing in the yard. After grabbing our binoculars, we were surprised to find quite a variety out there. I grabbed a piece of paper and started jotting down what we could see just in the small field of view from the front windows. (It was way too cold to go outside for a broader view!)
In fifteen minutes, we noted 16 species, including a new one for the "yard list"!
Gambel's quail
Mourning dove
Gila woodpecker
Cactus wren
Phainopepla
Northern mockingbird
Plumbeous vireo (the new one)
Verdin
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Pyrrhuloxia
Curve-billed thrasher
Great-tailed grackle
Sparrow sp. (Cassin's?)
White-crowned sparrow
House finch
European starling
While eating our late breakfast of delicious orange cranberry nut bread, we noted a few more birds including a Cooper's hawk chasing a common raven, an American kestrel perched on a power pole out back, and a rufous-winged sparrow.After getting dressed, we headed out to an urban lake to walk the dogs and hang out for a while. Just before leaving, I noticed the time was 11:11 am ... on 1/1/11. At the park, Polie had delusions of being able to catch a couple of killdeer running around in the grassy field where people fly model airplanes. We also saw yellow-rumped warblers in bright breeding plumage (um, this is January, guys!), red-winged blackbirds, grebes, a couple of great egrets, and a few great blue herons.
Using the restroom at the park was interesting. They have flush toilets in little outhouse-style buildings with lots of ventilation. The toilets are all metal usually with no toilet seat - the metal is shaped wide enough to act as a seat. So the first challenge on a cold day is not freezing one's butt off. The second challenge today was pushing in the button in the wall to get it to flush. I physically could not exert enough force with my fingers and had to kick it with my foot; difficult as it was high and I am short.
However, I did finally get it to flush ... at which point I discovered there was a decent amount of ice in the toilet bowl from it freezing overnight! The paper disappeared but I sure hope the lines don't freeze and get clogged. We'd had a good laugh here over the solidly frozen outdoor water bowl for the dogs and the paint tray that filled with rain water and then froze solid, but it never occurred to me that the park toilets might freeze.
We're back home and just chillin' now. Literally. The temperature is dropping as the sun makes its way to the horizon and we're expecting a very cold night again tonight. (Cold for here, that is. Our low was 16 degrees on Thursday night.)
I haven't thought about what I'm going to make for dinner yet, but it will be something from scratch. We've splurged over the past vacation week and enjoyed far too much rich food made by others. It's time for me to re-acquaint myself with the art of cooking from scratch and re-acquaint my palate with low-fat healthy food. Hope your New Year's was as nice as mine!
8 comments:
What a great variety of wintering birds in your area. So many of ours don't stay through the cold weather, but I've noticed more Canadian Geese that haven't flown south this year. I wonder if we'll have a shorter or milder winter?
Fresh baked bread for breakfast. Mmmmmm! Looks good!
I just got to get back into making bread. It sort of went by the wayside last year when there was too much else going on and I never got back to it.
We mostly get sparrows (house and hedge), finches (green and chaffinch), waxeyes, fantails, bellbirds, the odd tui and a very friendly blackbird that follows m round the garden. Oh, and a few native pigeons. My mum has a bird table next door so we see these regularly in winter - not so much in summer (except the blackbird). The sparrows get into the hen run and pinch the hen food - not that the hens seem to mind!
viv in nz
Too funny about the toilets. Up here, they close the "public" toilets in the park during the winter so that they don't have to heat them ;) ... and, by the way, I think it was colder down in your neck of the woods than it was way up here ;).
Farmgal - our usually fairly mild winters make this a good place for birds. Many of the hawks that leave colder northern regions actually stop in southern Arizona to overwinter while others continue further south. Years ago, we spent New Year's Day birding with friends and counted 99individual birds of prey. The variety was pretty good, too. 14 or 15 species, I think, including both golden and bald eagles, and hawks in a variety of morphs (color phases).
Viv - I have to bake some more now because I had to make a batch of the flax seed egg substitute. So, more of this bread and some muffins are probably coming up soon! Mmm, I could make lemon poppy seed muffins with the lemon juice in the freezer...
We sure enjoy watching the birds here. We don't feed them, other than a few wheat berries (from some stored that got mouse poop in them) for the quail.
Wendy - we're colder than you? Wow. Actually, an hour ago was the coldest temperature we've seen here yet: 15 degrees. Heck of a way to start the new year. Too bad we didn't have the thermometer in the summer to see what our range was. On remote land we owned years ago further south, our records were 12 degrees and 117 degrees.
I've always wanted to see a Pyrrhuloxia and there it was right in your backyard! We get some great migrating birds through here, too. The sandhill cranes are my favorite.
That bread looks delicious! I hope you're able to bake more during this cold spell. That really warms up our little house.
wow, sounds like you live in an Audubon sanctuary! I am actively trying to plant more plants/shrubs/trees to feed both us and the birds. your sightings are enviable.
Sounds wonderful! I love birding, saw a western screech owl the other day at dusk.
New Years Eve at out cabin was great fun. We had friends and family to celebrate with, kicksleds and tobaggons, a bonfire, fireworks (the kind that go way up in the sky)and yummy food. The 100 luminarias lining the sledding hill actually seemed to warm the -23F (that's 23 below zero!)night a little!
Desert Lean-to - I'll trade you a pair of pyrrhuloxias for a couple Sandhill cranes. :)
Yep, I baked cookies yesterday and another batch of the bread. When hubby got home from work yesterday, he warmed his cold hands over a pot of boiling pasta, too.
Dmarie - SE Arizona is well known as a good birding spot. The ones coming around here are just coming for the native plants. I'm sure we could get more if we planted specifically for them, but I doubt we'll do much of that.
dc - I love screech owls! Actually I love all owls and wish I saw more of them.
-23 degrees? No frickin' way would you find me out in those temperatures! The lowest I've ever experienced was -2 and that was cold enough, thank you very much.
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